Degrees of Guilt

Part Three -- by Becky Ratliff

See Disclaimer in Part One

The high-pitched screams of a
terrified child sent both men running for the back porch. It was coming
from the barn -- and McQueen saw smoke coming out of the hay
lift! He vaulted the porch railing and took off for the barn at a
flat out run, by the time he got there the whole loft was in
flames. He could hear Ephraim and little Abigail up there,
screaming in terror. The ladder to the loft was burning, McQueen
looked around for another way up and saw that the open framework of the
barn wall offered just enough handgrips to get up to the loft. By
then, the children were nowhere in sight. The hay stored up here
was burning and the flames were spreading in the rafters.

"EPHRAIM! ABBY!" He
spotted a flash of white cloth -- the little boy's shirt -- they
were huddled in the corner behind some barrels, sobbing
hysterically.

There was a rush of flames from
overhead and a creaking, tearing sound. McQueen looked up -- the
rafters were starting to fall, it looked like the whole building
was going to come in. He threw himself over the children, knowing
that would be a futile gesture if the barn roof caved in on all
of them. It wasn't the whole roof, though, just a tangle of
blazing rafters that blocked them from the edge of the loft -- so
much for the idea to jump to the ground floor.

He looked around desperately for
some other way out. The roaring flames and blinding smoke were
confusing, nothing looked the same as it had before the rafters
had fallen. He got his bearings from the corner. The hay lift was
the only other chance, but it was engulfed in flames. He stripped off
his jacket and bundled the kids up in it, not an easy job since
they were all coughing violently from the smoke. He stayed near
the barn wall, hoping the floor would be stronger there -- less likely
to plunge them through into the inferno below. There was a
searing pain when his clothes caught fire, then he leapt out from
the edge of the haylift and twisted as he fell, to make sure he
hit the ground first to break the kids' fall.

He hit hard and knocked all the
wind out of himself. He knew he had to roll to put the flames out but
he was too stunned to move. Seconds later, though, someone grabbed
the children out of the way and smothered the flames with his
jacket. It was Danny, of all people. Elizabeth Garrett gathered
her children up in her arms.

Danny tried to pull his shirt
off, they realized at the same time that he was burned badly
enough for it to be stuck. At that, Danny stopped messing with it
and yelled "Hey, medic over here!"

McQueen was struggling to stay
conscious, but he was dimly aware of Benjamin Garrett shaking Ephraim.
"You son of the Devil! How did you start that
fire?"

"I didn't!" Ephraim
protested. "I was looking for Sister--"

"Never lie to me, boy!"
Garrett flung the boy to the ground and raised his walking stick.
Elizabeth screamed, knowing he could easily beat the boy to
death, but the blow never descended. Danny had crossed the space
between them in two steps and grabbed Benjamin's wrist in a steel
grip. His fist slammed into the big farmer's jaw, knocking him
sprawling.

"Get up, you son of a
bitch," Wolfe challenged in a low, deadly growl. "If
you want to beat someone up, why don't you try it with a grown
man instead of a six-year-old kid."

Garrett got up, Elizabeth grabbed
at his arm and he backhanded her away from him. Those were both
stupid moves, Danny Wolfe waited for Garrett to come at him and
then quickly and thoroughly beat the living hell out of him.
Elder Elisha knelt by his daughter, she was dazed but relatively
unhurt. Both of them, kids in tow, scrambled over to McQueen's
side. Elizabeth was crying hysterically and thanking him
incoherently over and over again for saving her children's
lives.

The fire brought dozens of people
-- settlers, Wild Cards and Wolfe Pack alike -- running from all directions.
There was no way to stop the fire, but fortunately the barnyard
was clear, hard-packed ground.

After an initial examination,
Christy decided it would be better to take him up to the house,
rather than treat a serious burn in a dirty barnyard. He shook
her off for a moment. "Damphousse!"

"Here, sir!"

"See if you can rig one of
those big water tanks to the ISSCV engine unit, get this cooled
down before it gets dark enough for the chigs to start IR
flyovers. There's no way we'll stop their recon flights from
picking up heat traces ... but if it's still this hot, we'd might
as well radio them to start carpet bombing this
location."

"Yes, sir!"

"West, get these people
moving. I want the evacuation underway immediately."

"Sir!" West
replied.

"Vansen. You and Wolfe put a
couple of squads together and search this area. If someone set
that fire I want to know who and why before it gets
dark...something like this would have been a perfect signal to
the chigs. If there's a traitor we need him alive."

Danny nodded, not exactly
acknowledging the order, more like agreeing it was a good plan. McQueen
wasn't going to push the point as long as he got the job done.
Vansen answered with an automatic "yes, sir", which got
them both a teasing look from Cooper. He didn't say a smartass word
out loud -- he didn't have to. He knew how well Shane understood
the silent In Vitro informal "language" of looks and
subtle gestures. All he said was, "Can you make it to the house okay,
sir, or should I go with the Major?"

"Go, I can make it." If
someone had set that fire, McQueen wanted their best sharpshooter
with Vansen, not baby-sitting him.

Christy said, "Be
careful", and gave Cooper an "I mean it" look. He
grinned and put his hand on top of her head, he knew she didn't
like being reminded of how short she was ... especially relatively
to him!

It was only when they started
back up the hill to the house that McQueen realized how far it
was down here ... wings of fear had carried him when he'd
realized there were children trapped in a burning barn, it hadn't
seemed nearly so far then. He told himself that he had landed a
burning SA-43 with worse injuries than these and he was damn well
going to walk up there under his own power. Some rebellious part
of his mind piped up that less severe burns hurt worse because
the nerve endings weren't damaged as badly ... very severe burns
stopped hurting after a time. He told that little voice to shut
the hell up.

Elizabeth looked around.
"Where did Benjamin go?"

Elder Elisha said, "Straight
to the Devil, I would hope!"

She stared at him.
"Father!"

The old man's voice shook with
emotion. "I've been so blind, Lissie. I should have protected you
... and the children .... I trusted Benjamin."

"I know, Papa, I know. It's
all right now...."

By the time they got up to the
house, McQueen was glad to lie down in the spare bedroom. His pants,
like the jacket he'd wrapped around Ephraim, were fireproof, so
the only really bad burns had come from the cotton shirt he'd
been wearing. Christy soaked it off with water freshly drawn from
the well. It was cold enough to numb the pain considerably, by
the time she was done with that the worst of it had receded.
Christy said, "God, you've had some burns here a few times before."

"Twice," he replied
without elaboration. The worst ones had come from his injuries on
the Jupiter Line, but the acid burns from Marged had been almost
as bad.

Christy said, "These aren't
as deep."

"Don't use a gelskin unless
you have to, how many do we have?"

"Not a lot."

"Then save them, we might
need them worse later before this is over with."

Christy nodded. She carefully
patted the area dry and put burn gel on the worst of it, to
protect it and help it heal faster. That was all she had ever
done for the relatively nasty burns she'd gotten a few times
while fighting forest fires.

Before she had finished, the door
creaked open. Elder Elisha stepped inside. "Colonel, Lissie found
you some clean clothes when you--" He stopped, suddenly realizing
that McQueen ... and Ames, now that he was looking ... were In
Vitroes. Ames turned, her first duty was to protect a patient
under her care -- and Elder Elisha realized she had every reason
in the world to think there might be a threat.

Everything he had believed for
all of his life came into direct conflict with what he had just
seen this afternoon. This man had put his life on the line to
rescue Ephraim and Abby from the fire. In a very shaken voice, he
said, "Colonel McQueen, I've said and done some terrible
things since you came here, and you have never shown yourself to
be anything other than a good and just man. You saved the lives of
my grandchildren at the risk of your own, that kind of selfless
courage comes from nowhere except our Lord. I owe you more than I
can ever hope to repay. Before God, I repent of the sins I have
committed against you ... and your people ... and of those I have
led others to commit."

McQueen turned and looked him in
the eyes, all he saw there was honesty. He had thought of
"the bigots" as a faceless enemy. But despite his
prejudice ... whatever its roots ... Elder Elisha was a good man.
After a moment, McQueen held out his hand, and the old man shook
it firmly.

Christy stared after him for a
moment, then she got back to business. "You should rest. And
there isn't any reason not to, until Shane and Danny get back to
tell us something."

"All right, but wake me as
soon as they get back."

Christy must have given him
something to make sure he would rest, because although he was
dimly aware when 'Phousse came in to sit with him, he couldn't bring
himself around enough to talk. He realized that she wouldn't be
there if she hadn't got the barn fire put out, and the ashes
cooled down enough that there wouldn't be an obvious heat
signature on infrared. He wasn't aware of anything else until she
woke him by calling his name.

"What the hell did she give
me?" He winced and shook his head to clear it.

She gave him her best "don't
be silly" look, and knew that was plenty to get her point
across. "Shane's back. They couldn't find any evidence of
who started the fire, but someone did start it. Danny found a
jerry can that someone had gasoline in. We're ready to make for
the cave, if you can walk that far. Otherwise we need to find
somewhere closer by to hide out tonight."

"What about
Wolfe?"

"Theyre busy with the
evacuation."

"Give me a minute, I think I
can make it." Movement hurt, but not as much as it had
before, with the gel and the pain shot still working. But the
drug skewed his perception somehow, everything seemed muffled and
distant. His jacket was thrown over a chair, there was the
homespun shirt that Elder Elisha had laid out for him. Lissie had
the foresight to choose an old one, which had already been washed
out soft.

Elisha had remained behind, he
said that he had already sent Lissie and the children ahead to
the cave. Shane was waiting in the kitchen, she had kept only Cooper
and 'Phousse with her and sent everyone else ahead with the
colonists. McQueen asked, "Are we the last?"

"Yes, everyones
accounted for except Benjamin. No one paid any attention where he
went after Danny kicked his butt, and no one's seen him since.
But the reverend said Benjamin's shotgun and a box of shells are
missing."

Cooper said, "Whatever trail
he would have left was wiped out by all the people milling around
the fire."

Elisha worried, "If he's
captured, he'll be able to tell the chigs where we're
hiding."

McQueen was concerned about that
himself, but it was too close to dark to go out looking for him.
It would be more likely that the search party would be spotted.

Most of his gear had already been
sent on ahead, but Shane had left him his rifle and reloads, as well
as a camo tarp, some ration bars and his canteen. If something
happened that he got separated from the others, that gear and the
things he already had in his pockets would get him through the
night in relative comfort, and still kept the weight he had to
carry to a minimum.

Now that he had been moving
around for a while, he didn't feel quite so drugged as he had at
first, and the fresh air helped too. Elisha led the way, and the
pace the old man set wasn't too difficult for him to keep up. The
colonists had taken different routes to the cave and entered by
different ways, doing their best to hide their tracks. The path
Elisha chose led along the river much of the way, and then through
the forest, until they came to a small stream.

McQueen asked Elder Elisha,
"You're sure you dont have any idea who would have
burned your barn? As a leader here, have you done anything to
anger anyone?"

He shook his head, but answered
thoughtfully. "I can't imagine. It was such a foolish thing
for anyone to do, considering it will be a miracle if the chigs
don't burn the whole town anyway. There was only one incident in
the last couple of months. I would not allow Timothy to give his
son Jonathan in marriage with Susannah the daughter of Samuel and
Keturah. Wait and see, I thought, if there is more to the match
than the lands by the river that she stands to inherit. Jonathan
is only fourteen, while Susannah is nearly seventeen. That makes
all the difference in the world now, but in five years -- hardly
any! I told the young people to wait six months or a year, and
see how things are then. Timothy was less than happy with me for
that, he's a proud man and he's used to getting his way. But I
think if he had a quarrel with me, he would confront me face to
face, not try to burn me out."

"Timothy? That would be the
big man with black hair who stood by the window at the meeting
this morning?"

"Yes, that was
Timothy."

Off-hand, McQueen had to agree
that the man didnt seem the type for a cowardly act like
setting that fire. It was looking more and more like the fire had been
set as a signal to the chigs. "You must have had a reason
for hiring the Wolfe Pack."

Elisha said, "We barter with
independent traders for goods we cant produce here. Extra
meat and leather goods especially are valuable back on Earth.
Also, we pan for gold in the hills up around here. God has
provided abundantly for us. But early this year, after one group
of traders left, we found a young woman murdered. We can't deal
with honest merchants without the pirates knowing about us as
well, so we hired these people."

The stream-bank grew steeper, and
soon they came to a place where the stream flowed out of a small
opening in the side of the hill.

Elisha said, "You can get in
that way, but its narrow and in water all the
way."

Cooper grinned, and McQueen
guessed what he was thinking -- that sounded like a great place
to set an ambush for chigs.

Further up the hill, there was a
narrow entrance into the cave. It was pitch black just a little
ways inside the cave mouth. Shane let Cooper go ahead of her so
that she could drop back with Ty, he gave her arm a little
squeeze as they stepped inside. Vanessa brought up the rear.
Cooper was as claustrophobic as she was afraid of the dark. He
could barely handle it if he was either in the front or the rear
... but the last place he wanted to be was trapped in the middle
of the group.

They paused while Elisha lit the
lantern he had brought with him. Shane turned on her light. They revealed
a weird underground architecture like nothing to be found on the
surface. Shane had gone through a tourist cave once, rather than
chicken out in front of her friends ... but that cave had been
furnished with electric lights and well-marked walkways. This
place was just as nature had made it. The cave floor was rough
and stony in places where a trickle of a stream had worn a groove into
the floor, and slippery in others where the rock was more
resistant and the water spread out across the tunnel.

Cooper ducked to avoid a low
place, and judged the height of the passage. He said, "If
it's all this low, the chigs aren't going to like it any better
than I do."

Elisha said, "There are
places like this all through the caves, but a lot of it is easier going.
We're coming to the first big gallery now, we call it the
Sanctuary because this is where we used to hold our worship
services when we lived down here."

Shane asked, "How long have
you been here?"

"The first of us came back
in '38, there were only twelve families then. More of our
brothers and sisters have joined us every year since
then."

Vanessa asked, "What if
someone wants to leave?"

"A few go back, now and
then. They miss their families, or the homes they left behind. My
sister went back when her husband died. Now and then, one of the young
people will sign on with the traders. But, for most of us, this
is our home. The last thing we want to do is go back where they call
practicing our faith sedition."

McQueen said, "The
government isn't in the business of religious persecution, Elder,
theres nothing to be gained by it."

"Not directly, no, but we
don't believe in pledging our loyalty to the government. Our
loyalty belongs only to God, we believe that it's sinful to put
the works of man above that. Many of us have been arrested
because we tell our children not to make that pledge, that's
considered spreading sedition. Teaching our faith to our children
is sedition? Refusing to make a pledge that we can't in
conscience expect to keep is against the law?"

The Marines looked at each other,
no one had a good answer for that. They had any number of disagreements
with the Salemites, but the right of people to worship according
to their conscience wasn't one of them. McQueen said, "I'm
no lawyer, but it sounds to me like you could fight that in court."

"That's what some of us back
on Earth think we should do, even though the Bible commands us not
to sue one another. But those of us who came here felt led of God
to shake the dust off our feet. I believe He has a purpose for us
here, at New Jerusalem."

*****

The Sanctuary was a large
gallery, Elder Elisha told Shane to aim her flashlight up at the
ceiling. Aside from scaring a flock of bats -- or whatever
similar animal lived on New Jerusalem -- this revealed a wide
ledge, mostly obscured by rocks and stalactites, about a meter
down one wall. "We called that the Choir Loft. At the other
end of the gallery, it's only six or eight feet up from the cave
floor, its easy to get up there."

They looked from the Choir Loft
to the narrow, low passage they had just left, and immediately took
the Elder's meaning. That would be a perfect sniper's nest.

They took a break there to rest a
while, Elder Elisha was tired and out of breath and he said there was
a steep downhill section after this. McQueen was just as glad for
a break, although he wouldn't have been the first one to speak up
and ask for one.

Cooper got restless and decided
to check out the Choir Loft. He switched on his light and poked around
the other end of the gallery until he found a place where he could
swing himself up to the ledge. There were just enough openings
out into the Sanctuary that he didn't feel too closed in up there,
but there was still plenty of cover. The chigs wouldn't see him
up here until he took his shot, he was well satisfied that the
first chig through that hole would be a dead chig if they had someone on
watch up here.

Coopers light caught a
flash of white just on the edge of his peripheral vision. He directed
the beam over there.

Back in a shallow recess was a
grinning skull. Suddenly one of the flying creatures that Shane
had stirred up came darting out of the skeleton's rib cage and
sailed right at his face. He let out a startled yelp and swatted
at it, nearly fell off the ledge. That started his friends
laughing. Vanessa teased, "Watch out, Coop, they'll get in your
hair!"

"Aw, they will not! There's
a dead guy up here! That thing was in the skeleton!"

Shane repeated, "A dead
guy?! Vanessa, hold your light over here." She took the short
way up, there were plenty of handholds up the side of the cave
wall for an experienced climber.

Coop helped her up onto the
ledge. Shane had to admit, finding that skeleton and having a bat
fly out at her would probably have given her a pretty good scare
too. "Yeah, its a dead guy all right!" She poked
around with her Ka-bar to be sure there weren't any more bats in
there. These "bats" might well be poisonous or carry
some alien disease.

The skeleton was unclothed, but
around its neck were two items -- a gold cross pendant on a thin chain,
and a length of twisted vine. Shane took both items, without
disturbing the bones themselves.

They climbed back down to join
the others. She gave the necklace to Elder Elisha. "Do you recognize
this?"

His eyes widened in shock as he
looked down at the pendant. "Yes, I do. It belonged to
Lydia. She disappeared the second year we were here while she was out
gathering firewood, we believed she'd been killed in an accident
or caught by a shambler when she didnt come home and we
couldn't find any trace of her."

Shane produced the dried vine.
"No accident. This was around her neck."

"Thats how we found
Sister Charity!" He exclaimed. "We blamed her murder on pirates
... but the killer must be one of us."

McQueen said, "Let's keep
that observation to ourselves unless we can prove whos
responsible, it will just create a panic down here
otherwise."

Elder Elisha stared at the cross
pendant lying in his weather-beaten palm, and finally slipped it
into his pocket. "Youre right, of course. I dont
like the idea of leaving Sister Lydia up there ... but after all
these years, I dont suppose she'll mind waiting a little
while longer for a Christian burial."

Vanessa said, "What I don't
like is the idea of sharing this cave with some kind of a maniac.
He probably knows it like the back of his hand."

The Elder said, "I shouldn't
think so, daughter. Otherwise, he could have found some out-of-the-way
place to put Sister Lydia. This trail is one of the most commonly
used -- and the Choir Loft is the first place you'd come to where
a body could be hidden."

She realized she was being teased
and felt her face go hot. "Yes, sir!"

Hawkes grinned, that was a little
bit of payback for the bats-in-your-hair crack. After that, they moved
on.

The other end of the gallery soon
narrowed and split two ways. Elder Elisha said, "That's
where the stream entrance comes up. Most of that way is under two
or three feet of cold water! We go down this way."

It was a hard climb, the water
flowed in a quarter-inch-deep sheet across smooth, slick rock
that slanted down at a steep angle. The tunnel was just low
enough for Hawkes to crack his head a couple of times, and too
wide to brace against both sides. Elder Elisha was careful with
his lantern.